According to a press statement, Steve Yucknut, Vice President of Sustainability at Kraft commented, “We’re building upon our successes to date. We’re learning, improving and looking beyond our four walls for opportunities. Our new goals will help us do more. For example, our increased focus on sustainable agriculture will further boost our scale to help accelerate long-range development in more communities and for more commodities than ever before.”

Kraft Foods is the world’s biggest purchaser of cocoa, coffee and cashews and plans on reaching these new agricultural benchmarks by using third party certifiers such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance and 4C Association. In 2010 alone, Kraft bought roughly 50,000 metric tons of Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee, 11,000 metric tons of Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa, 19,000 metric tons of Fairtrade cocoa, and 24,000 metric tons of Fairtrade sugar.

They have also improved their animal welfare policy, which the Humane Society intends to applaud at Kraft’s shareholder meeting May 24, citing the company’s switch over to cage-free eggs as a major accomplishment.

More visible marketing of the company’s sustainability efforts can be seen in projects such as the Planters Nutmobile fueled by biodiesel and charged by solar power, which is on a national tour to teach the public about conservation. Another is an urban farming initiative by Triscuit aimed at supporting community and home gardens in food deserts across the U.S.

Kraft plans to meet their new goals by building upon the following declared achievements from 2005-2010:

Energy use is down 16 percent

CO2 emissions are down 18 percent

Incoming water is down 30 percent

Net waste is down 42 percent

Packaging is down 100,000 metric tons (200 million lbs)

16 million km (10 million road miles) have been removed from its network

Veteran journalist Marc Gunther provides an interesting critique of the company’s assessment of their accomplishments in a recent blog post, “The trouble is, those gains are measured against Kraft’s ‘total production.’ So if the company sells lots and lots more stuff–which, of course, every company wants to do–it could end up generating more pollution, even as it becomes more efficient. That doesn’t do the planet much good.”

For a more detailed breakdown of Kraft’s sustainability goals, check out this fact sheet and keep an eye out for the company’s updated Responsibility Report to be released at the end of May…

Lesley Lammers is a freelance journalist focused on the intersection between the environment, food, justice, health and social entrepreneurship. Lammers has written for the New York Times, the Green Chamber of Commerce, Good Life Report, Common Ground Magazine, and EDFish. You can follow her at: @LesleyLammers